The fatal attraction of domestic wood burning

Australian pensioner, David Bolton, spent several years battling the bureaucracy over wood heater pollution in his Canberra neighbourhood before he died last year.

David, who suffered from a serious lung condition, believed excessive smoke from a nearby wood heater was affecting his health and claimed local authorities took little concrete action against the polluting wood heater despite his lodging numerous complaints over a long period.

David’s lung condition meant he was imprisoned in his own home when a neighbour fired up the wood heater. But even this wasn’t enough. The wood heater smoke was so heavy and concentrated at times that it seeped into his house even with all the doors and windows shut. David struggled to breathe. He was admitted to hospital on several occasions. Despite speaking to the neighbour and a visit from a government inspector, the toxic smoke continued.

In the end, he gave up and decided to sell his home of many years. Before he and his family could escape to a cleaner neighbourhood, 66-year-old David was rushed to hospital where he died. While there was no direct evidence that smoke from the neighbouring wood heater was responsible for his death, his son, Matthew, believes the stress of struggling to live and deal with neighbourhood wood heater pollution worsened his father’s condition.

Environmental health experts have long warned that those most as risk from wood heater pollution are the elderly, those who suffer from a pre-existing heart or lung condition and children whose lungs are still developing. Matthew says his father became very anxious leading into winter because he knew his neighbourhood would soon fill with toxic wood heater smoke.

‘Dad had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Smoke would really affect him. He tried to talk to the neighbour, but he suggested Dad fit his house with double glazed windows or just stay inside,’ Matthew said.

‘He got more and more frustrated dealing with the bureaucracy and going through the same process over and over again. In the end he believed that reporting the polluting wood heater was pointless as it appeared to have little influence or impact,’ he said.

David lived in Canberra in Australia’s Capital Territory (ACT). Known as Australia’s Bush Capital, the city prides itself as being a clean, green and well-planned city. But it hides a dirty secret. According to research by environmental health experts wood burning heaters are the largest single source of air pollution in Canberra’s leafy green suburbs, account for the majority of air quality breaches and are the cause of hospitalisation and even premature death.

While the ACT Government says less than 5% of Canberra households burn wood primarily for domestic heating, the 2023 ACT State of the Environment Report said that wood heaters account for more than 70% of fine particle air pollution in Canberra and are responsible for the majority of breaches in air quality standards. Consistent with this, a citizen scientist recorded real time peak levels of fine particle air pollution (woodsmoke) in their neighbourhood in Canberra’s Tuggeranong Valley at 260 micrograms per cubic meter at 8pm on 6 July 2024. This reading from an outdoor weather station was rated as hazardous and included a health warning for all neighbourhood residents. The accepted daily average for air pollution in Australia is 25 micrograms per cubic meter. Canberra’s Tuggeranong Valley had already been identified by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s, Dr Melita Keywood, as the second most polluted residential area in Australia behind Launceston Tasmania.

A study reported in the Medical Journal of Australia in 2023 found smoke from wood heaters causes as many as 63 premature deaths per year in Canberra. It also found the estimated annual economic cost of these deaths is as much as $333 million.

University of Canberra Professor and HEAL Network Director, Professor Sotiris Vardoulakis, said the estimated annual number of deaths in the ACT caused by wood heater smoke is similar to that attributed to the extreme smoke of the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires.

Professor Vardoulakis said exposure to wood heater smoke can exacerbate health problems such as asthma and other respiratory and cardio vascular conditions, as well as heightening the risk of premature death.

‘These health conditions are aggravated during winter when the air stagnates due to the local topography, and the cold and polluted air gets trapped nearer the ground,’ he said.

‘In addition to air pollution, wood heaters also produce carbon dioxide, methane and black carbon, which all contribute to climate change.’

Wood heaters have also been identified as a major source of air pollution and avoidable deaths in Sydney, Armidale and Tasmania. A study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2020 found that in Tasmania exposure to air pollution resulted in 69 premature deaths, 86 additional hospital admissions, and 15 emergency department admissions each year. Over 74% of the cases are attributable to wood heaters. Furthermore, the economic impact from wood heater smoke in Tasmania is estimated to be more than $290 million.

In 2021, the Medical Journal of Australia reported on a similar study by University of New England researcher Dr Dorothy Robinson, data scientist and statistician Joshua Horsley, University of Tasmania researcher and public health expert Professor Fay Johnston and University of Sydney Professor Geoffrey Morgan. It found that in the New South Wales city of Armidale, a city of more than 24,500 people, 14 premature deaths per year are attributable to air pollution from wood heaters. This corresponds to 210 lost years of life, at an estimated cost of $10,930 per heater per year.

A 2022 study by the New South Wales Government found wood heaters are the largest source of air pollution in Greater Sydney. It reported 269 premature deaths in residents of Greater Sydney from wood heater pollution, corresponding 3,279 lost years of life, an average of 12.2 lost years of life per premature death.

In early 2023 the ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, Dr Sophie Lewis, released a report on the ACT Government’s wood heater policies and programs. She found that current policies, plans and strategies for managing wood heaters in the ACT are insufficient to protect human health and the environment. She added that it was clear there had been an understanding among ACT policymakers of the risks posed by wood heater pollution for decades.

In her report Dr Lewis cited 1991 advice to the ACT Legislative Assembly that said, “The potential health risk of pollutant emissions by solid fuel heaters is intensified by their near ground level release from the average suburban household chimney”.

In response to the report, the ACT Minister for the Environment, Rebecca Vassarotti, announced wood heaters will be phased out in suburban Canberra by 2045. Ms. Vassarotti, said clean air is fundamental for a healthy environment. She said while Canberra generally has favourable air quality, experts agree there is no safe level of exposure to air pollution.

‘I appreciate many of Canberrans grew up with wood heaters. However, we need to confront the reality that the smoke they emit is a direct source of pollution in our homes, a clear and present danger to the well-being of our community in urban and suburban areas, and a looming threat to our natural environment,’ Ms. Vassarotti said. Many environmental health groups have welcomed the decision but some believe more urgent action is needed.

Asthma Australia former CEO, Michelle Goldman said the announcement was a breakthrough for Australia. She said people with asthma and carers of children affected will be very relieved by this news, although it will be some time before it comes into effect.

‘Public opinion is clear and along with science and health impacts, it’s incumbent on governments to move quickly to take action, appreciating the complexity of the task. 2045 is a long time away and this transition could come sooner,’ Ms. Goldman said.

The Conservation Council ACT Region further stated that wood heaters increase climate emissions, are a risk to the health of our community and destroy our precious native forests to source firewood. It said the ACT Government has shown leadership but must bring forward the target date.

The powerful wood heating industry has responded by spending big on radio and newspaper advertisements in the Canberra media and launching a petition aimed at overturning the ACT Government’s decision to phase out wood heaters.

It conducted a similar campaign in 2021 and successfully overturned calls to restrict wood heaters in the City of Nedlands in Western Australia. Despite all its efforts it failed in Armidale where the council there has introduced new restrictions on wood heaters in an attempt to reduce residential air pollution. The wood heating industry claims Canberra’s air pollution problem is caused by older wood heaters and replacing them with newer models will improve air quality in winter. But environmental health researcher, Dr Murray May, points to a New Zealand example in which wood heaters that meet current Australian standards have been banned in four New Zealand towns and despite being replaced with ones that meet lower emissions standards they still experience high levels of wood smoke pollution. Dr May describes wood heaters as a community wide version of smoking cigarettes in public.

It is expected the wood heating industry will attempt to make the phasing out of wood heaters in suburban Canberra an issue for ACT voters when they go to the polls in local elections this October. But Environment Minister Ms. Vassarotti has indicated the ACT Government is standing firm on its decision. Meanwhile, Matthew Bolton has welcomed the phasing out wood heaters in Canberra’s neighbourhoods. He said his father was desperate to see change and while it is good news, it has come too late for him.